How to Use Clipboards to Create a Real Life Pinterest Board

There a lot of things we love about Pinterest. We love the community it creates. We love stumbling across insanely awesome DIY projects, recipes, and fashion finds on an hourly basis. We also love how Pinterest makes us think of those old bulletin boards from middle school and high school, covered in ripped magazine pages from Seventeen, SPIN, and even Tiger Beat.

For today’s DIY project, we decided to try a more grown up take on the old bulletin board. Instead of one big cork board, why not 9 small boards, categorized by topic, with a constant rotation, kind of like that addictive website we all love? Presenting our real life Pinterest board, made from clipboards!

First, get those clipboards in order. We ordered a pack of 12 for $1.80 a pop from Uline, and used 9 for our board. You can also find colored ones if you’re not about painting, but they can get pricier.

Squeeze your paint into a mason jar or plastic cup. Brush it onto the clipboard. Be careful to paint around the metal. You can tape the metal off but we found that a small brush worked well enough to give us a clean finish. Paint a second coat, and a third if you’re using a light color.

Repeat with the rest of your colors and let dry.

While your boards are drying, grab your favorite magazines and catalogs and start tearing out pages of inspiration. We used Wired, Nylon, Martha Stewart Living, and, of course, the Anthropologie Catalog.

To hang, lay out your design on the floor beforehand. If hammering into dry wall, we recommend using nails with a little bit of texture since you’ll be clipping and unclipping on a pretty frequent basis. If you don’t plan on taking the clipboards down to use, we recommend adding a bit of mounting tape to the bottom to secure them and keep them centered. Oh, and you might need a tall person to help you. ;)

Use measuring tape to make sure everything is evenly spaced.

Voila!

These actually look pretty good without the magazine bling!

Now add the pages you’ve ripped out of your mags, ideally by category so you can treat each clipboard like a separate Pinterest board. Our categories include style, events, food, home decor, beer, fitness, and summer!

All done! A super easy way to create a modern real life Pinterest board without corkboard and push pins. This is also a great move for rotating art or pictures in your home, or for recipes in the kitchen.

Have you tried your hand at creating a wall of clipboards? Or a modern bulletin board? How do you infuse the charm of Pinterest back into your analog life? Let us know your ideas in the comments below or come find us on Twitter.